MKs Plan To Visit Temple Mount

First Publish: 8/5/2003, 7:27 PM

A group of Likud MKs plans to visit the Temple Mount on Thursday, the fast of Tisha B'Av. MK Inbal Gavrieli explained that Tisha B'Av is the day on which the Jewish People commemorates the destruction of the two Holy Temples - a few hundred years apart - and that the Temple was the center of Jewish religious and national life.

The police say that they will not allow the MKs to visit the Mount, noting that "parliamentary immunity does not open locked doors." "Who closed those doors in the first place, and why?!" responded MK Gavrieli, when told of the police decision.

She said that the group plans to make the visit in any event, although "we will not violate any laws." Among the MKs planning the visit are Yuli Edelstein, Ehud Yatom, Yechiel Chazan, Roni Bar-On, and Michael Ratzon.

MK Edelstein said, "The police must learn once and for all what exactly is parliamentary immunity and when it is valid, in order that they not disrupt the parliamentary work." He said that he asked Law Committee Chairman MK Bar-On to call an emergency session with the police and have the decision rescinded.